A VERY Strange Question.

Apatewna apatewna at yahoo.gr
Fri Feb 9 20:23:59 UTC 2007


O/H Grant Peel έγ�α�Ρ:
 > Hello,
 > I do use Webmin/Usermin for User front ends and Admin back ends, but 
I doubt
 > these will come into play with MS.

I prefer sticking my hands in the console rather than trusting a third 
party GUI to do the job for me. I've seen some horrors with webmin so I 
just avoid it. Yes, in windows you have a generic application (microsoft 
console) that handles various pluggable configuration GUIs. You can have 
multiple views of such GUIs but despite my experience I rarely find them 
intuitive.

 > Question 1:
 >
 > Dell offers many of thier server with "MS Server 2003" pre loaded.
 >
 > On our BSD servers, we offer:
 >
 > Web Serving (Apache)
 > Email SMTP and POP (Exim and vm-pop3d)
 > MySQL
 > PHP
 > PERL
 > Modified Usermin (for the domain owners to manage thier pieces of the
 > server).
 > and all the necessary supporting libraries.

Windows 2003 Server Small Business, offers
IIS for web serving
Exchange server for email and collaboration
MSSQL
Installing PHP will not be a problem
Installing Perl will not be a problem
Terminal Services (RDP) in administration mode allows two administrators 
to log in concurrently, using remote desktop connection.

It is also cheaper than Windows 2003 Standard edition but has some 
drawbacks (which I hope are fixed by now).

a) you have to promote it to domain controller or it will start 
rebooting automagically after some weeks
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Windows_Server_2003/Q_21930609.html

b) you are limited to 75 users accessing the Active Directory services 
(irrelevant)

c) �Exchange Server 2003 Computer Takes Longer Than You Expect to Shut 
Down�
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829361


 > Question 2:
 >
 > If any of the MS equivalent software does not come with 'Server 
2003', what
 > ones are they, how do you get them?

Answered above


 > Question 3:
 >
 > I have never understood MS licensing scheme.
How true

 > What does this '5 CALs' by default mean? In order for hundreds of 
domains to
 > be on the (MS) server, doe we need to get hendreds of CALs?

AFAIK, [5 CAL] means "five client access licenses" and it refers to 
accessing shared resources (folders/printers/active directory services). 
You'll find that windows Xp home allows only five network computer to 
connect to its resources and windows xp pro allows ten. This has nothing 
to do with web serving because simply the clients connect and access 
information anonymously.

 > Question 4:
 >
 > Does IIS come with the Front Page extentions still? or is everything 
Share
 > Point now? Does one need to purchase them seperately? Can they coexist on
 > the same machine?

I do not know about the frontpage extentions. Sharepoint services is 
more like a collaboration website where a team of people can oganize 
their work ( documents of office XP and above, uses document revisions 
too). Office 2003 supports Sharepoint services directly, opening and 
saving files directly to the website. Office XP has reduced 
functionality compared to 2003.


 > Question 5:
 >
 > Is the DNS setup (my servers - ns1 and ns2 are located locally), easy -
 > seamless?

Yes, the GUI is included. :) Although you will have to fiddle arround to 
find your way.

 > Question 6:
 >
 > Does Server 2003 have the ability to configure the NIC with multiple IP
 > aliases? (i.e. can each domain in the MS server have its own IP?).

This is from memory, but all domains share the same IP unless they are 
SSL enabled which requires a separate Ip address.

 > Question 7:
 >
 > Can IIS handle multiple domains (i.e. like Apache virtual hosting).

Yes

 > Question 8:
 >
 > Does IIS handle SSL? same certs and keys as Apache?

It does handle SSL but I haven't been into the webhosting business so I 
don't know much. The only thing I would expect, is to have separate 
certificates for separate websites (the obvious, but like I said I never 
hosted websites).

 > Question 9:
 >
 > Does it come with an FTP Daemon of some type? if no, can proftpd be used?
Yes and it is known to work well despite its limited configuration. 
Proftpd is *NIX only as the developer website clearly states. I wouldn't 
trust a "windows port" of proftpd anyway :)

Overall, Windows 2003 small business is cheap and you can test it for 
your self. Your company, in its course of evaluating services will 
afford it. However there are other not well known versions of windows 
2003 servers, namely the Windows server 2003 Web Edition for web hosting.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/overview/web.mspx

See a comparison of windows servers here
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/features/comparefeatures.mspx#Web%20and%20Application%20Services
-- 
RTFM and STFW before anything bad happens
-----------------------------------------
Thanasis Rizoulis
Electronic Computing Systems Engineer
Larissa, Greece
Linux User #358384
FreeBSD/PCBSD user




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